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They’re in the zone.
The NYPD will be allowed to set up buffer zones around synagogues and other houses of worship under a controversial bill passed by the City Council Thursday — despite fierce opposition from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s DSA allies.
The dramatic vote sends the legislation championed by Council Speaker Julie Menin — who introduced the bill after anti-Israel protesters swarmed synagogues — to Mamdani’s desk with a veto-proof 44-5 majority.
Free speech advocates and many of Mamdani’s progressive comrades railed against the bill as an assault on the First Amendment, but Menin — the council’s first Jewish speaker — argued the legislation balanced those concerns with the need to address rising antisemitism.
“This is a deeply personal issue for me. I am the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. My grandfather was killed in the Holocaust. It’s very personal,” she said.
“These bills in no way infringe on the First Amendment right to protest, which is sacrosanct.”
The bill requires the NYPD to develop plans to contain the risk of obstruction, injury, intimidation and interference around houses of worship when protests are imminent — including whether a security perimeter is needed.
Menin crafted the legislation after protesters chanting “globalize the intifada” descended on the Park East Synagogue as it hosted a Zionist organization in November, leaving congregants afraid to enter or leave.
The bill followed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pitch to create a 25-foot protest buffer zone around houses of worship, as well as a previous proposal from Menin that would have created 100-foot perimeters, which she amended after input from NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and to address free speech concerns.
The veto-proof passage likely forestalls any drama from Mamdani, a critic of Israel who avoided taking a direct stand on the bill.
He notably did not clap when Hochul announced her own buffer zone bill during her “State of the State” address in Albany.
Menin said Mamdani hadn’t raised particular concerns about the bill, beyond saying the city’s Law Department should take a look.
But the mayor has signaled more skepticism over a similar “safe access” measure pushed by Councilman Eric Dinowitz (D-Bronx) that applies to schools — which passed short of a veto-proof majority by a 30-19 margin.
City Hall did not answer when The Post asked if Mamdani would veto either or both of the bills.
Lefty council members, along with civil liberties groups, fought tough-and-nail to kill Menin’s bill down to the wire.
Councilwoman Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn), a DSA member, evoked the Black Lives Matter protests as she argued both bills give the NYPD too much power as she cast a “no” vote.
“They undermine the 2020 summer protest settlement agreement, which requires the NYPD to minimize policing at protests and comply with the First Amendment by a tiered response informed by best practices,” she said.
“New York City must model a different path, one that protects both safety and fundamental rights.”
Councilwoman Alexa Avilés (D-Brooklyn), also DSA diehard who voted no, argued the legislation actually does very little to address hate and violence.
“We love our diversity, we must fight hate with truly effective and evidence based tools that reduce violence. The package of bills does not do that,” she railed.
“It relies on police interventions that have not decreased rates of anti violence. It ignores the mistrust of the NYPD within communities of color. It makes no effort to advance community-led interventions that actually protect New Yorkers’ health and safety.”
Jewish advocates hailed the house of worship bill’s passage.
“Today, the City Council made clear that in New York, faith and freedom go hand in hand,” said Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
“No one of any faith should have to run a gauntlet of intimidation to enter or leave their house of worship. What happened outside Park East Synagogue was a wake-up call, and Speaker Menin showed real courage in turning that moment into action.”
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, warned Mamdani not to try to some Johnny-come-lately show of opposition.
Schneier’s father heads the Park East Synagogue where protesters ran amok.
“If he vetoes the bill, it is a betrayal of what he expressed to me in November while on his way to meet with President Trump,” he said. “I recall his enthusiastic and ecstatic response to my suggestion at that time.”
The city’s Democratic Socialists of America group had launched a phone bank campaign earlier this week urging members to voice their opposition to the bill and another similar one that applies to schools, which they falsely claimed would expand the NYPD’s capacity to surveil students.
The two bills, intros 001 and 0175, would “severely limit the ability to protest by permitting the NYPD to establish and maintain security perimeters around educational institutions and places of worship,” the NYC-DSA claimed.
“These bills expand the capacity of the NYPD to police and surveil Black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers, jeopardizing the safety of protestors exercising their First Amendment rights and students attending school,” they wrote.
Hanif and her fellow progressive Councilman Shekar Krishnan also stirred up drama before the City Council meeting by hosting a surprise briefing on Islamophobia Thursday morning with anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil.
The briefing also invited Badar Suri Khan, a Georgetown scholar who is reportedly married to the daughter of former Hamas adviser-turned-critic Ahmed Yousef.
“She was outraged they would do this on day of the vote to combat antisemitism,” one source said of Menin, adding she wasn’t notified ahead of time.
Other sources told The Post that the Council Committee to Combat Hate moved their meeting on buffer zone bill to Council Chambers from a hearing room at 250 Broadway to avoid having to deal with folks at the Islamophobia forum.
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